Diet of Buddha

There has been some controversy about the diet of Buddha, if he ate meat or if he was strictly vegetarian. The first Precept states no killing or causing to kill living beings, but at the same time, monastics are expected to take what is offered them, living by the Threefold rule.

The Buddha's final meal

At his final days in the parinibbana sutta, the food that led to his death was at one time translated as pork. The terms have been translated as “pig’s truffles” which was originally mistranslated as pork. Modern scholars including, Arthur Waley, K. E. Neumann, and Mrs. Rhys Davids have corrected this to “the food of pigs” which are mushrooms. Today, the majority of Buddhist scholars agree that the Buddha ate mushrooms, which may have been poisonous and led to his death at the age of 80. Or it could simply have been the size of the meal that led to his death as there is evidence that the Buddha was already suffering from digestive problems well before eating the final meal (from previous suttas where the Buddha was ill and then recovered). However, the Buddha eats from the dish and requests for the remaining amount to be buried, apparently knowing that the food was in some way tainted and not simply a large meal. This suggests that the food was in some way not fit to eat, such as the wrong type of mushrooms.

Further evidence that the Buddha did not eat pork can be seen in the fact that Cunda was a blacksmith, the one who offered the final meal to the Buddha. The three highest castes do not eat pork or other foods from pig meat. As a blacksmith, he was a member of the third caste and therefore, could not have prepared pork.

Meat eating

There appears to be one place, and apparently only this one place, where he is described as eating meat. At A.III,49 it mentions that the Buddha was once served sukaramamsa (Pali) with jujube fruit. The term mamsa = meat or flesh.

The sutta mentions that the Buddha ate "out of pity" apparently suggesting that he wanted to please the layman by accepting his food.

Vegetarian foods

Yet in spite of the one reference to meat, there are numerous other places where it mentions what the Buddha ate and they are vegetarian:

• Thick milk-rice porridge and fresh ghee (Udana 4.3)

In the Khuddaka Nikaya, Vimanavatthu, there are stories of meritorious deeds done by lay people who then ascended to a deva (heavenly) realm. Many of the meritorious deeds were giving alms food to the Buddha or one of his monks. Here we find several examples of only vegetarian food either given to the Buddha or one of his chief monk disciples, Moggallana or Sariputta:

• Ghee, honey, sugar, rice, milk (Vim. 1.5)
• Molasses (Vim. 4.2) and (Vim. 6.4) and (Vim 6.5)
• Rice-crust (Vim. 2.10)
• Cake (Vim. 3.1)
• Sugar-cane (Vim. 3.2) and (Petav. 4.5)
• Rice-crust, soups and curries (Vim. 2.3)
• Mangoes (Vim. 6.3) and (Vim. 6.5) and (Vim. 4.8)
• Rice custard / pudding (Vim. 6.7)
• Rice gruel (Vim. 4.4) and (Vim 4.5) and (Petav. 3.5)
• Rice, cane-juice, sugar cane (Vim. 5.12)
• Rice gruel and mangoes (Petav. 4.12)
• Beans, grains (Vim. 7.6)

Vegetarian foods served to former buddhas

The Buddha of our time is the teacher who rediscovered the Dhamma. In previous aeons, there were Buddhas who taught the Dhamma, according to Buddhism.

The bhikkhuni Rohini was an arahant (enlightened) and in a previous life, from a prior aeon, she served "sweet cakes" to a former Buddha (Thi. 67).

See also

• Vegetarianism and Buddhism
• Food of enlightenment
• Threefold rule

References

• The Complete Book of Buddha's Lists -- Explained. David N. Snyder, Ph.D., 2006.
• http://www.thedhamma.com/